Letters to the editor

Friday

Aug 31, 2007 at 2:00 AM

Aug. 27 — To the Editor:

I am incensed at the article and picture in last week's paper "reporting" a local woman ramming car with her children inside. This is the second article written by, I believe, the same reporter about this family.

The first airing their dirty laundered divorce for all the Seacoast to read about. How utterly bored you must be at your job to write about this stuff and give no thought to how you may contribute to harming the children in this family.

Or maybe yet, you have no idea about the truly important goings on in the world and have to find little, inconsequential "news" to write about, not caring who it may harm emotionally.

I am well aware that police reports are public information, but there has to be an ethical responsibility attached to reporting, not just randomly talking about one family's private and certainly painful plight.

I hope that anyone attached to this article does not have children and skeletons in the closet to be discussed freely and publicly. It only hurts the kids. And I'm certain that none of you would want that for your children. Do your job and report the important stuff ... or quit.

Julie KeraghanDover

Aug. 26 — To the Editor:

You did a public service by drawing attention to the loss of historic roadside stone walls (article Aug. 19 and editorial Aug. 22).

Ironically, in my experience, it is often heedless town road crews who topple or bury the walls as they regrade dirt roads.

But we have also lost an irreplaceable historic stone wall right here in Portsmouth without objection from the press, preservationists or the Historic District Commission.

Thanks to years of neglect and the availability of federal highway funds, the century-old hewn granite blocks that formed the seawall along Newcastle Avenue are gone, replaced by prefabricated concrete slabs with stone-like shapes cast into the surface. I hope a similar fate is not in store for other neglected stretches of seawall in the city.

On a smaller scale, the old granite slabs in the crosswalks of Market Square have been replaced by some composite brick-like blocks. It's evidently time to give up the name Granite State. I hope the city got a good price for our patrimony.

David EwingPortsmouth

Aug. 28 — To the Editor:

I'm writing in support of the voters of Greenland to decide on the future of Pat Ferrelli.

This is a voters issue, not one for the Board of Selectmen.

We have always found Pat to be helpful and pleasant.

If she has made mistakes, haven't we all. If her training wasn't proper, that can be fixed.

Let the voters decide. And be fair.

Ellen RaisbeckGreenland

Aug. 27 — To the Editor:

A friend and I had the pleasure of walking in the Gilford Old Home Day parade Saturday with other Democrats and democratic presidential candidates' representatives and volunteers.

We were received warmly and happily by many of the crowd in this mostly Republican area.

We felt like this showed a change of tide in New Hampshire and a recognition of the good job that Rep. Carol Shea-Porter and other Democrats have done so far.

Democrats have a strong field running on all levels of state and national government this time, and their message is a good one.

It is encouraging to note that others are starting to see this.

Jane HoffmanRye

Aug. 27 — To the Editor:

Do you have a unique or interesting bit of history about Spruce Creek — photos, artwork or stories — you'd like to preserve and share with Kittery residents and others now and in the future?

As part of Kittery's recently awarded Maine DEP Watershed Grant and other projects in the watershed, the Spruce Creek Association is beginning the process of compiling a history of Kittery's main estuary and watershed. We are asking any members of the public who have information to share about Spruce Creek to please send it to us for addition to our archive; we'll scan them in and return the originals.

Family reminiscences, pictures of all types, old letters, narratives, storm stories, personal scientific research, and even interesting objects that have a connection to the creek, will be welcome and appreciated.

Contributions to the Spruce Creek historical archive will be duly attributed to the donor and will be made available as text or picture through our Web site.

It is rapidly becoming apparent that the surge "strategy" isn't working.

Sure, American troops are able to quell some of the violence is parts of Baghdad and elsewhere, but it isn't enough.

I put the word strategy in quotes because the surge isn't really a strategy; it's a tactic. There's a difference.

What's the goal in Iraq? It's the hoped-for establishment of a stable government that will prevent Iraq from disintegrating, which, in turn, is definitely going to lead to a much greater regional destabilization. In order to achieve this goal, we need a functional strategy. The strategy, as it stands right now, is political reconciliation. This is the strategy; the surge isn't. The surge is a tactic of attempting to quell violence in order to buy a little breathing space for the fingers-crossed, wished-upon reconciliation to have a chance to begin.

But we don't have enough troops to really quell the violence. There are spots of success, but success in some spots has given birth to a new descriptor, "squirting."

As pressure is put on a hot spot of violence, the insurgents and jihadists "squirt" out and move to another area. The ambush bombings proceed apace.

Regardless ... even quelling the violence is proving to be no guarantee that the legacies of colonial favoritism and sectarian savagery can be overcome.

The increased troop levels also mean that more Americans are exposed to lethal attacks. American mortality figures are climbing because Gen. Petraeus has ordered troops to take more risks as part of his recondite understanding of counterinsurgency methods.

Domestically, the Iraq war is politically unsupportable. Since it is already plain that we are going to leave with the job undone, we may as well leave now rather than throw more Americans away just to attempt to salvage the Republican Party's reputation.

And as our troops vainly give their lives to rescue Bush's historical legacy from humiliation, Iraq's politicians take a long summer holiday (and surely the Ridgewood Country Club welcomes them). They're resting from all the hard work they do of not even attending the Iraqi parliament. That's right, even when their parliament is in session, it's empty, or nearly so because attendance is so poor.

Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's coalition government is disintegrating. The Sunnis have walked out. The misnamed "surge" tactic isn't working, and the reconciliation strategy has already failed. Iraq is toast.

The issue that binds those three concerns — and many more — is Congress' budget priorities.

Last week's story about the Pentagon paying a million dollars to ship two 16-cent washers illustrates what happens when a government bureaucracy becomes as bloated and unaccountable as the Department of Defense.

Military experts say $60 billion that is currently used to buy obsolete Cold War weapons and stockpile 10,000 nuclear weapons could safely be shifted from the Pentagon's annual budget to pay for needs like better health care and education, job training and renewable energy.

The beauty and the value of the N.H. Primary is our access to candidates and our ability to raise issues they won't otherwise discuss. At PrioritiesNH, we're organizing citizens to attend campaign events and ask candidates about their budget priorities. Some candidates who wouldn't answer our questions back in January now are listing the wasteful weapons systems they'd cut.

Please help us hold their feet to the fire. Go to www.PrioritiesNH.org/birddog_main.php to learn how.

Steve VarnumWarner

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